A crushing ending
February 22, 2017 - Georgetown, once up 14 in the first half tonight, found itself down three at halftime. Fellow BIG EAST Conference member DePaul continued outscoring the Hoyas in second stanza work, running their spree to a 33-12 advantage over the course of around 13 and a half game minutes. The mostly Georgetown partisan crowd numbering 7,896 was shocked.
Around four minutes later the Hoyas flipped their fortune, earning another lead. In fact of the remaining 14:48, Georgetown led the entire time besides slightly south of two minutes.
That didn’t equate to a win unfortunately, as the homestanding Hoyas fell 67-65 to DePaul in dramatic fashion; after careening down the court with five seconds remaining, senior point guard Billy Garrett was fouled with .02 remaining in regulation. His two free throws, capping a 15 point, three rebound, four assist, one steal outing, sealed G’Town’s deal.
“We wanted to contain” Garrett, recounted GU’s head coach John Thompson III of that final sequence. “We knew that he was taking it out. We knew that they were going to throw it right back to him. We wanted to retreat and keep him in front of us. We just didn’t do it”.
How’d they get to that point?
DePaul, now 9-19 overall and 2-13 in the BIG EAST initiated their first half/early second stanza comeback by deploying a 1-2-2 zone press, as well as some 2-3 zone. The latter’s impact was noted by Thompson, who stated “It threw us off. For most of it, we weren’t just taking threes - we got the ball inside. We had some turnovers, we had some missed shots. And then we missed some shots and it took us too long to settle down”.
He also bemoaned G’Town’s related mental let down, as “But just as important during that run, we let our frustrations on offense lead to bad defensive possessions. I feel like they hit four or five threes during that span”.
For the record DePaul, which shot 46.7% on three balls overall, 60% in the first half, canned six such shots during their comeback, including both of senior guard R.J. Curington’s long ball makes. He finished with 14 points, while junior forward Tre’Darius McCallum logged 13 points, also leading the game with seven rebounds.
It was McCallum’s back to back layups that tied the ball game at 65, setting up what turned out to be G’Town’s fateful possession within the last thirty seconds: Junior Hoya guard L.J. Peak (season low six points) received a ball screen and was presented with the option of using that to score or exploiting other looks, including graduate forward Rodney Pryor (14 points, five rebounds) popping up on a pin down.
Another choice was finding game high scorer, sophomore pivot Jessie Govan, who set the screen for him. That option was chosen, but unfortunately Govan (18 points and five rebounds) couldn’t can the long ball. Garrett’s court long, game winning dash followed.
DePaul, who shot 47.7% from the field next hosts Seton Hall, Saturday, a 2p EST tip-off. The Blue Demons, still last in the BIG EAST, are surely buoyed by this victory.
Georgetown (14-14, 5-10, 9th in conference) had an additional double figure scorer – sophomore forward Marcus Derrickson dropped 11 points – along the way to shooting 42.9% from the floor yet a regrettable 23.1% (3-13) beyond the arc. That last stat must improve Saturday at Madison Square Garden, when G’Town takes on St. John’s in NYC. That tilt begins at noon EST.
Speaking of which, how will the Blue and Grey put this loss behind them, and prepare for a dangerous Johnnie squad?
Thompson shared he told his team immediately after the game “Let’s regroup and be ready to play on Saturday”. Pryor indicated the team is in a solid place, believing “You just got to stick together. From here on out, we have to finish strong”.
True, as a loss to SJU could greatly hinder any chance the Hoyas have at post season tournament participation.